Friday, December 07, 2012

Trouble in paradise

PNG
Surfing Association takes up fight for women. MALUM NALU reports

PAPUA
New Guinea surfing classic, Splinters,
made an unexpected premiere showing at a Coffee International gender equity and
domestic violence against women at the Holiday Inn in Port Moresby last Friday.

Splinters is a surfing
documentary that was shot over a period of four years, from 2003-2007, by
Californian surfer Adam Pesce and produced by Emmy Award-winning producer,
Perrin Chiles.

Its
features include:

300
hours compressed into 95 minutes;

No
million-dollar feature actors,just six
local surfers and raw footage of part of the evolution of the surfing history
of PNG;

Being
world-premiered in 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City after
being chosen out of 3,000 entries.

Idyllic beach scene at Lido village, Vanimo, where the Splinters movie was shot.-Pictures by MALUM NALU

Local churches such as St Therese Catholic Church, Lido, will also need to
raise their voices against violence against women.

Lido village has some of the best waves in PNG during surfing season.

Splinters then went on to
take out awards at the 2011 Audience Award at New Port Beach Film Festival in
California, 2011 Winner Best Documentary at London Film Festival, 2011 Official
Selection Documentary at Amsterdam Film Festival, 2011 Winner Halekulani Golden
Orchid Hawaii International Film Festival, and 2011 Surfer Best Documentary
Award out of a poll of 2 million surfers.

PNG
Surfing Association president, Andrew Abel, told last Friday’s workshop that
three fundamental issues emanated out of Splinters
when he signed off the release, and they were:

Domestic
violence against women;

Empowerment
of women through the power of surfing; and

Responsibility
of young people, marriage and obligations of making and raising children, and
rule of law.

Abel
said surfing communities had been established in Vanimo, Wewak, Madang, New
Ireland, and soon-to-be Manus and Bougainville, but they too were not isolated
from domestic violence and issues that were demonstrate in Splinters.

“You
saw in a small segment of Splinters
where a young man is violently hitting and kicking a young girl,” he said.

“This
took place at the finals of the 2007 National Surfing Titles, which I was
oblivious to as I was busy competing myself, but it was happening in full view
of the crowds at the back of the judging and competition area.

“Interestingly,
the young man was not one of our surfers, yet his sister he assaulted is a
surfer, including their other sibling who is our reigning national open women’s
surfing champion, who went on to represent PNG at the 2011 Pacific Games in New
Caledonia.

“This
happens daily on our streets and in our villages, towns and cities!

“When
I was invited in 2011 to New York City for the world premiere (of Splinters) at the Tribeca Film Festival,
including New Port Beach, California, and more recently at the Australian
premiere in Melbourne, where I did the Q & As to predominantly white
audiences, they too were shocked and horrified, but I told them that what they
saw in that idyllic coastal village with swaying palm trees, is happening in
their very own streets, towns, cities and states.

“I
flick on my TV and it is on nightly news and reality shows on nearly every TV
station.

“One
well-to-do New York lady was so moved by the incident that she demanded that Splinters be shown on the Oprah
(Winfrey) Show and be taken around the USA, to highlight what is happening in
the most-powerful country in the world, despite all its wealth and power.

“For
them, it was a shock, coming from an indigenous person and from a surfer for
that matter, from a Pacific island nation that many may have never heard of!”

Abel
said through the pursuit of surfing over the last 25 years, he had witnessed as
seen in Splinters, how through the
power of sports – surfing in this case –real life positive and tangible changes
had come about by empowering young women in a male-dominated society, “where
they had been suppressed and deprived of their rights to an equal voice and
equal opportunities to surf and compete on an equal footing”.

“But
more importantly,” he added, “ they can participate in all facets of the
surfing and surf tourism industry running in parallel, including being
nominated and accepted on the executives of our 10 SAPNG-affiliated surf clubs,
where once all the womenfolk were shunned, as seen in Splinters.

“These
are small but significant milestones that are the building blocks in the rural
and village communities that lead to empowering our womenfolk and enabling them
to become leaders and heroes in the pursuit of their dreams, aspirations and
passions in life.

“This
too can be replicated all over PNG, given the right support at all levels.

“In
order for us to collectively achieve the objective of ridding this social evil
and malignant tumor that is undermining the fabric of our families, clans,
communities and society as a whole, there has to be a fundamental shift in the
pendulum in our attitude and that has to start at home.

“Yes,
my friends, it starts in the home, and it starts with each and every one of us
present here today!”

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